THIS is the heartwarming moment Michael Schumacher talks about his son Mick and his “nephew” Max Verstappen in a rare interview.
Newly unearthed footage featuring Michael and his former teammate – Max’s dad Jos Verstappen – was released as part of Netflix’s latest season of Drive to Survive.
The touching clip features in episode 4 – Like Father, Like Son? – which briefly delves into the close relationship between the Verstappens and the Schumachers.
Both Michael and Jos’s sons grew up to race in F1, with Max being a two-time champ and Mick currently serving as reserve driver for Sir Lewis Hamilton’s team Mercedes.
Drive to Survive reveals how the families used to holiday together, with the two future drivers – now 25 and 23 -essentially growing up together thanks to their dads.
The show includes a rare clip showing Jos and Michael discussing if they would let their children became F1 drivers in an interview filmed during the noughties.
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The question prompts a laugh from Michael.
“I think this could be the first time we have an argument if our two would be racing,” says the German.
Jos replies: “For sure, they are a very similar age and they will compete with each other if they grow up and decide into go-karts.”
But in a full version of the clip – which is available in grainy quality elsewhere online – Michael elaborates further, suggesting perhaps he wasn’t keen on the idea.
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“I think horse-riding or golf is a much better sport for our kids,” he goes on.
Jos replies that he will support Max in anything he wants to do – and he is famous for helping his son get onto the ladder in F1.
Drive to Survive also has video of Max as a toddler hanging out with Michael.
“We used to go on holidays when we were little together, the two families, and these kind of memories will stay with me,” explains Max, who is now a 35-time race winner in F1.
“For both of us to be in F1 is amazing and also for Michael, he’s a very proud dad for sure.”
Previously, Max has revealed that Michael used to be like his “uncle”.
And he revealed as he grew up with the Schumachers he didn’t even know Michael was a multiple F1 champ.
“I was three or four years old at the time. I just knew that was Uncle Michael. Who was very nice. Who was an extremely big family man,” Verstappen told F1 Insider.
“But I never saw him as a record World Champion, I didn’t know that.”
Max – a 35-time race winner – went on: “It was great. I still have positive memories of those weekends today.”
And he revealed that Jos and Michael would load their kids up on two seater go-karts and two father & son duos would race against each other.
Max would go on to break Schumacher’s long-standing record of the most races in a season – notching up 15 wins in 2022, two more than Michael’s 13 in 2004.
Michael has not been seen in public ever since – with any information about his condition tightly controlled by his privacy-focused family led by wife Corinna.
Fans are desperate for news – with the tenth anniversary of Schumacher’s accident coming up in December.
And adding to further heartache for fans of the Schumachers, Mick lost his F1 seat at the Haas team at the end of 2022.
He was replaced by F1 journeyman Nico Hulkenberg – and will have sit out 2023 as a reserve driver at Mercedes behind Sir Lewis and his hotshot teammate George Russell.
Drive to Survive charts Mick’s difficult sophomore season in 2022 – including his horror 170mph accident in Saudi Arabia.
Mick’s rough year saw him outscored by his teammate, the returning Danish veteran Kevin Magnussen.
The show outlines Mick’s struggles – and the pressure that came with racing under the name “Schumacher”.
“Mick has the lineage of one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen,” says F1 journalist Will Buxton.
“But it remains to be seen if [he] has the same character as his dad.”
Haas boss Steiner said the Schumacher name was “blessing and a curse” for Mick.
But in characteristically non-nonsense fashion, the famously foul-mouthed team principal says at some point the young German will have “stand up” and be his “own man”.
Mick opens up about his struggles with pressure in the show, including the candid admission that “dreams don’t always come true”.
His dad Michael is one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, dominating the sport in the early 2000s after rising to power in the 90s.
He raced from 1991 to 2006, and again from 2010 to 2012 – a second act of his career which saw him become instrumental in setting up the dominant Mercedes team.
The German won five world championships with Ferrari and two for Benetton.
Schumacher retired in 2012, but just a year later he was involved in the life-changing skiing accident while on the slopes with Mick.
He was left in a medically induced coma before being released home and then ever since it has been near silence on the driver’s condition.
His family, led by wife Corinna, closely protect Michael’s privacy and offer him a quiet life.
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Since then there have only been hints and cryptic rumours about Schumacher’s health with drip fed information from friends and unnamed sources.
But the only people who know for sure are Schumacher’s family and his closest pals.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
